U.S. House Adjourns Without Electing New Speaker

California Republican Kevin McCarthy failed Tuesday to get enough support in the first three votes as his bid for Speaker of the House struggles to cross the finish line.

The U.S. House adjourned with no debate after the third vote and is scheduled to reconvene at noon Wednesday. Until a new speaker is elected, the House cannot conduct other business.

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Arizona Supreme Court May Accept Kari Lake’s Appeal, Bypassing Appeals Court

After Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed Kari Lake’s lawsuit challenging her loss in the anomaly-plagued Maricopa County midterm election, Lake filed a notice of appeal. She also requested that the Arizona Supreme Court immediately take her case, bypassing the Arizona Court of Appeals for several reasons.

“We’re going to appeal this,” Lake told Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast Tuesday. “We think we have absolute merit with this lawsuit, and we’re going to appeal it and take it even higher.”

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Three Arizona GOP Representatives Vote Against Kevin McCarthy for Speaker

The United States House of Representatives began voting Tuesday to elect a new Speaker of the House. Yet, Republican Party frontrunner Kevin McCarthy of California has not secured enough votes to achieve the title. In total, 19 Republicans voted against him, including three GOP members from Arizona.

“We barely got through half the ballot before confirming that McCarthy is still well short of 218 votes. My colleagues have made clear that our party deserves a new leader. McCarthy should stand down and allow us to select someone else in the next ballot,” tweeted Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05).

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Pro-Life Leaders Push Back on Trump’s ‘No Exceptions’ Blame for Midterm Losses

Former President Donald Trump accepted no blame for Republicans’ failure to achieve the anticipated “red wave” results in the midterm elections, but, instead, pointed a finger at pro-life candidates who insisted on “No Exceptions” to abortion as the reason for the party’s losses.

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. “I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.”

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Arizona Center for Policy President Says Court of Appeals Ruling on Abortion Not the End for Arizona’s Territorial-era Ban

Arizona Center for Policy President Cathi Herrod, Esq., stated that the Friday ruling from the Arizona Court of Appeals “harmonizing” Arizona’s abortion laws to allow physicians to perform abortions up to 15 weeks in pregnancy is not the end for Arizona’s territorial-era ban on the practice.

“The fight to protect unborn life and women from the harms of abortion does not end with an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling. The three-judge panel’s decision today only temporarily blocks Arizona’s abortion law, which was in place in 1973 when Roe was wrongly decided,” said Herrod. “I am confident Arizona’s pre-Roe law limiting abortion to cases where the mother’s life is at risk will be upheld by Arizona’s Supreme Court.”

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The Number of Medicaid Recipients Will Soon Top 100 Million U.S Residents: Report

The United States will have 100 million residents on Medicaid in the next 72 days, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability, meaning that nearly one-third of all Americans will be on the program for health care.

Over the past three years, states have been prevented from removing recipients from the program through a federal COVID-19 emergency. Now, the date when states can begin to re-registering recipients when that emergency ends on April 1.

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Big Banks Predict Significant Economic Downturn in 2023: POLL

Of the 23 major financial institutions that work directly with the Federal Reserve, 16 anticipate a recession within the next 12 months, with two anticipating one the year after, according to a survey published by The Wall Street Journal Monday.

These institutions, which range from Bank of America to UBS, note that Americans are spending their savings, banks are heightening lending standards and the housing market is in a decline, all classic warning signs that a recession is impending, the WSJ reported. All of this is being exacerbated, the banks say, by the Fed’s historically aggressive pace of interest rate hikes, designed to blunt stubbornly persistent inflation.

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General Motors Funds Transgender Programs in Elementary Schools

General Motors (GM) gave a grant to an organization that supplies elementary schools with books promoting the transgender ideology.

The automotive manufacturing company donated money to the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) “Rainbow Library Program,” according to a 2021 Social Impact Report published by GM.

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American Catholic Leaders Celebrate Life of Pope Benedict, ‘Defender of Truth’ Who Taught Above All Else ‘God Is Love’

American Catholic leaders are acclaiming the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose scholarly writings emphasized the unity of faith and reason and, most fundamentally, the primary truth of the Catholic faith, which teaches God is Love.

Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, died Saturday at the age of 95. He became pope in April 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until his resignation in February 2013.

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Half of the US No Longer Requires a Permit for Concealed Carry

Half of the states in the U.S. no longer require residents to hold a concealed carry permit to carry firearms in public after Alabama, Indiana, Georgia and Ohio passed laws in 2022 removing permit requirements.

On Monday, Alabama began enforcing its permitless carry law, becoming the 25th state to do so, while Indiana, Georgia and Ohio also passed laws this year allowing residents to concealed carry firearms without a permit. Over the last two years 10 states have moved to permitless carry, including Utah, Montana, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.

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Commentary: Teachers Don’t Want to Tell Parents What’s Going on in Classrooms

Do parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in public school?

Parents say yes; teachers say no.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. The description of the latter party can be tweaked to “teachers unions” — although you don’t hear many individual teachers bucking the union line — but the dichotomy remains: parents want to know what’s going on in their kids’ classrooms, and teachers, administrators, and their union bosses would rather not tell them.

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Commentary: Republicans Struggle with Young Voters

Now that the 2022 midterm elections are in the book, the post-election blame game for Republicans is underway. And there are plenty of explanations being suggested.

First is the group who say they never expected a “red wave.” Clearly their prognostication button had been on mute until now. Another group is blaming Republican opposition to early and mail-in voting. This may have had some effect, but a moderate one in comparison to 2020. For this, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.

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Activists Push States for Free School Meals

At least a dozen states are considering implementing or already have free student meal programs to continue the federal government’s COVID-19 giveaways, while some activists are demanding for more things to be made free.

Congress allowed a pandemic-era free student meal waiver to expire on Sept. 30, returning to the pre-COVID posture where only students at some schools or those whose families met specific income requirements were given free or reduced-price meals.

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